Joomla is a world-class, open-source content management system that is search-engine and mobile-friendly, multilingual and flexible; it also offers unlimited design potential. With more than 110 million downloads, 10,000+ extensions and templates, Joomla is used on 2 million+ websites. You might deploy Joomla for business websites or portals, e-commerce or online publications.
With the help of Docker, you can quickly deploy a containerized version of Joomla and use it for just about anything. Let’s do just that.
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What you’ll need to deploy Joomla with Docker
I’ll demonstrate the deployment on an instance of Ubuntu Server 22.04 using the Docker runtime engine. You’ll need a running instance of Ubuntu Server, which can be running on-premises or a cloud host, such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, and a user with sudo privileges.
How to install Docker
Install Docker
We’re going the simple route and installing Docker from the default repositories. Log into your Ubuntu server and install Docker with:
sudo apt-get install docker.io -y
Add your user to the docker group
Add your user to the docker group with:
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
Make the system aware of the new group with:
newgrp docker
How to create a network and pull the images
Create a new Docker network
First, we must create a network for Joomla with the command:
docker network create joomla-network
Next, pull the Joomla and MySQL images with the following commands:
docker pull mysql:5.7
docker pull joomla
How to deploy the database
Create the MySQL volume
First, we’ll create the volume for the database with the command:
docker volume create mysql-data
Deploy the database
Next, we’ll deploy the database with the command, where PWORD is a unique/strong password:
docker run -d --name joomladb -v mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql --network joomla-network -e "MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=PWORD" -e MYSQL_USER=joomla -e "MYSQL_PASSWORD=PWORD" -e "MYSQL_DATABASE=joomla" mysql:5.7
How to deploy Joomla
Create the Joomla volume
Now create a volume to hold the Joomla data with the command:
docker volume create joomla-data
We’ll deploy Joomla with this command, where PWORD is the password you set in the database deployment.
docker run -d --name joomla -p 80:80 -v joomla-data:/var/www/html --network joomla-network -e JOOMLA_DB_HOST=joomladb -e JOOMLA_DB_USER=joomla -e JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD=PWORD joomla
If port 80 is already in use, you might also have to change the port configuration. For example, you could deploy Joomla to external port 8005 with the command:
docker run -d --name joomla -p 8005:80 -v joomla-data:/var/www/html --network joomla-network -e JOOMLA_DB_HOST=joomladb -e JOOMLA_DB_USER=joomla -e JOOMLA_DB_PASSWORD=PWORD joomla
How to access the web-based installer
Point your web browser to http://SERVER:PORT, where SERVER is either the IP address or domain of the hosting server, and PORT is the external port you assigned during the deployment. You should be greeted by the web-based installer (Figure A), where you can finish the installation.
Figure A
The host of the database will be joomladb because it’s been containerized and not localhost.
Congratulations! You just deployed Joomla with the help of Docker. With this process, you can deploy Joomla to any environment that supports Docker.
How to learn more about Docker
If you want to learn more about Docker, don’t miss these resources in the TechRepublic Academy:
- Hacking and Securing Docker Containers
- The Linux & Docker Coding Bundle
- The Docker and Kubernetes Certification Training Bundle
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